Ghaznavids
wrote, “Ghālib, you write so well upon these
mystic themes of Love Divine. We would have
counted you a saint, but that we knew your love of
wine” [4]. However, in the year 1850 the King,
Bahadur Shah Zafar, bestowed the titles of Dabir-
al-Mulk and Najam-ud-Daulah upon Ghālib,
which were seen to be an induction into nobility.
Mirza Ghālib died on 15 February 1869.
References
1. Russel R, Islam K (2005) Ghālib: life and letters. In:
Russell R (ed) The Oxford India Ghālib: life, letters and
ghazals. Oxford University Press, New Delhi, p 3
2. Schimmel A (1987) Foreword. In: Rahbar D (ed) Urdu
letters of Mirzā Asadu’llah Khān Ghālib. State Univer-
sity of New York, New York, p x
3. Hali MAH (1990) Yādgār-i-Ghālib (trans: Qadiri KH).
Idarah-i Adabiyāt, New Delhi, p 14
4. Russel R, Islam K (2005) Ghālib: life and letters. In:
Russell R (ed) The Oxford India Ghālib: life, letters and
ghazals. Oxford University Press, New Delhi, p 105
5. Varma PK (1989) Ghālib: the man and times. Penguin,
New Delhi, p 133
6. Prigarina N (2004) Mirzā Ghālib: a creative biography
(trans: Faruqi MO). Oxford University Press, Karachi,
p 119
7. Kanda KC (2007) Mirzā Ghālib: selected lyrics and
letters. New Dawn Press, New Delhi, p 197
Ghaznavids
Michael O’Neal
Washington, DC, USA
Synonyms
Āl-i Sebüktegīn; Ghaznawids; Yamīnids
Definition
The Ghaznavids (977–1186) were the ruling
dynasty of a Perso-Islamic amīrate (latterly sul-
tanate) founded by slave soldiers of Turkish
descent and named after its principal capital of
253
Ghazna (now Ghaznī), located in present-day
southeastern Afghanistan.
The Establishment of Ghaznavid Power
The Ghaznavids were a dynasty founded by Turk-
ish slave soldiers (Arabic: ghulāms or mamlūks)
who, at the height of their power in the first half of
the eleventh century, ruled vast territories
stretching from western Iran to northwest India.
Their empire constituted the most powerful polity
erected in the Islamic world after the dissolution
of the centralized power of the ‘Abbāsid Caliphate G
in the ninth century. In India, they were responsi-
ble for the permanent establishment of Islam in
Punjab.
The founder of the Ghaznavid line, Sebüktegīn
b. Jūq (or Qarā Bechkem), was born a pagan at
Barskhān/Barsghān on the Issıq Köl (Issyk Kul in
modern Kyrgyzstan), pointing to possible origins
among the Qarluq Turks. He was enslaved and
enrolled in the Turkish guard of the Sāmānids
(819–1005), whose empire was based in the
Transoxanian city of Bukhara. Sebüktegīn
became subordinate to the ghulām Alptegīn (d.
963), the Sāmānid commander-in-chief of
Khurāsān. Alptegīn’s failed attempt to place his
own candidate on the Sāmānid throne after the
death of the amī r ‘Abd al-Malik b. Nūḥ in 961
led to his withdrawal to the small town of Ghazna
in the province of Zābulistān, on the southeastern
edges of the empire, where the indigenous
dynasty was dispossessed. Several ghulām com-
manders succeeded Alptegīn at Ghazna until 977,
when Sebüktegīn was elected its commander.
Sebüktegīn’s 20-year rule saw his authority
extended over the lands surrounding Zābulistān,
including Kabul, Punjab, Bust (now in southern
Afghanistan), Quṣdār (Balūchistān), and
Khurāsān and Ṭukhāristān south of the Oxus
River [5, 8]. Although Sebüktegīn remained for-
mally subordinate to the Sāmānids, as reflected in
his title al-Ḥājib al-ajall (“most exalted com-
mander”) [3, 11, 12], his largely autonomous
rule means that he may be regarded as the founder
of the Ghaznavid dynasty.
254
The Apex of the Empire
At Sebüktegīn’s death, his son Maḥmūd
Ghaznavī, the commander of Khurāsān, set aside
his brother Ismā‘īl, who ruled in Ghazna and
Balkh. Maḥmūd thus became the sole inheritor
of his father’s patrimony, and by 999, he had
discarded the last vestiges of Sāmānid suzerainty.
Initially recognizing the deposed ‘Abbāsid caliph
al-Ṭā’i‘ (r. 974–991, d. 1003) in throwing off
Sāmānid dominion, Maḥmūd posed as defender
of the rights of al-Qādir (r. 991–1031), and in
return, he received the honorific titles Yamī n al-
dawla and Amī n al-milla (“right hand of the state”
and “trusted one of the religious community”) [2,
3, 5, 12]. The former title in particular became an
important one, and indeed, the dynasty as a whole
is sometimes thereby identified as the
“Yamīnids.”
Thus equipped with the prestige of caliphal
investiture, Maḥmūd championed the cause of
Sunnī Islam to great effect in his campaigns
against his political rivals, both Muslim and non-
Muslim. The Ṣaffārids of Sīstān, the shēr (ruler)
of Gharchistān, the Farīghūnids of Gūzgān, and
the Ma’mūnids of Khwārazm were all overthrown
on suitable pretexts. But Maḥmūd generally
sought a modus vivendi with the Qarākhānid
Turks, his most dangerous rivals who ruled the
former Sāmānid heartlands in Transoxania. The
Oxus separated the Qarākhānid and Ghaznavid
territories, but in 1008, Maḥmūd had to repel an
invasion of Ṭukhāristān by the Īleg Khān Naṣr b.
‘Alī (d. 1012–1013) and Yūsuf Qadır Khān (d.
1032); in turn, he established bridgeheads across
the Oxus at Tirmidh (Termez) and most signifi-
cantly in Khwārazm, primarily to pressure the
Qarākhānid ruler of Bukhārā and Samarqand
called ‘Alītegīn (d. 1034), the brother and rival
of Yūsuf Qadır Khān [2, 5, 22]. (On Maḥmūd’s
campaigns in India, see below.)
During Maḥmūd’s reign, his valiant son
Mas‘ūd (I) spearheaded campaigns into the
pagan enclave of Ghūr, whose conquered inhabi-
tants were forcibly converted to Islam. Eventually,
Maḥmūd turned his attention to western Iran and
the Twelver Shī‘ī Būyids, who since 945 had
Ghaznavids
controlled Baghdad and effectively deprived the
Sunnī ‘Abbāsid caliphate of its temporal power. In
1029, Ray (near modern Tehran) and Jibāl (the
central Zāgros Mountains) were conquered [5, 8,
22]. The following year, Mas‘ūd was in Iṣfahān,
recently wrested from the Kākūyids, when he
heard of his father’s death; he marched east and
deposed his brother, Muḥammad, who had been
named heir at Ghazna. Mas‘ūd has been judged as
lacking his father’s political acumen. Certainly, he
failed to stem the influx of the Oghuz Türkmen
from Central Asia under the leadership of the
Saljūq family, who by 1040 had routed Mas‘ūd
in open battle and wrested Khurāsān from
Ghaznavid control.
Successors to Mas‘ūd I
After Mas‘ūd’s disastrous reign, the Ghaznavids’
territories were reduced to eastern Afghanistan
and northwest India, although Balūchistān and
coastal Makrān also appear to have kept up some
connection to Ghazna. The more manageable size
of their domains enabled the later Ghaznavid sul-
tans to maintain authority for nearly a century and
a half after Mas‘ūd’s death in 1041, while the
empire’s orientation toward India became even
more pronounced [7].
The late 1040s and early 1050s were a period
of dynastic instability and general crisis. The
murder of ‘Abd al-Rashīd and a number of
Ghaznavid princes in c. 1051–1052 by the
ghulām Ṭughrul (Toghrıl) was followed by the
latter’s short-lived usurpation of the throne. After
Ṭughrul’s assassination, the empire was placed
on a more stable footing under Farrukhzād and
during the 40-year reign of Ibrāhīm, under whom
relations with the Saljūqs were generally stabi-
lized. Farrukhzād was apparently the first
Ghaznavid ruler to call himself by the typically
Saljūq title al-sulṭān al-mu‘aẓẓam (“great sul-
tan”) on his coinage; earlier rulers had been con-
tent with the formal title amī r, following
Sāmānid practice, although the title sulṭān (lit.
“power” or “authority”) was applied already to
Maḥmūd in panegyric poetry and other contexts
Ghaznavids
[3, 7, 12]. The death of Ibrāhīm’s son Mas‘ūd
(III) in 1115 sparked another period of dynastic
struggle. Eventually, the throne passed to
Mas‘ūd’s son Bahrām Shāh, who enforced his
claim as the protégé of the Great Saljūq sultan
Sanjar b. Malikshāh (r. 1118–1157). The
Ghaznavids thereby became formally subordi-
nate to their historic rivals [7, 18].
In the mid-twelfth century, the dynasty came
under increasing pressure from the rising Ghūrids,
particularly when Ghazna was sacked in c. 1150
by the sanguinary ‘Alā’ al-Dīn Ḥusayn. The occu-
pation of Ghazna by Oghuz adventurers in c. 1162
permanently forced the Ghazanvids back onto
Punjab. The end came in 1186 when Muḥammad
Ghūrī conquered Lahore and deposed the last
sultan, Khusraw Malik.
Conquests and Raids in India
The earliest Muslim incursions into India began in
the seventh century, and Arab rule was perma-
nently established in Sind already under Muḥam-
mad b. Qāsim (d. 715). But it was the Ghaznavid
sultans who extended Islam to Punjab and united
it politically with the Iranian plateau, thereby
opening a great “migration corridor” between the
Middle East, Central Asia, and the Indian Subcon-
tinent [31]. Indeed, under Maḥmūd, campaigns
through the Afghan mountain passes into India
became an almost annual affair [17, 22]. Follow-
ing in Sebüktegīn’s path, he overthrew the
Hindūshāhī rulers of Wayhind (now Hund, north-
east of Attock Fort) in a series of expeditions. The
great fortresses and cities of northwest India soon
became objects of plundering, including Bhāṭiya
(Bhatinda) in 1004–1005; Bhīmnagar (Nagarkoṭ,
modern Kangra) and Nārāyan (Nārāyaṇpur) in
1009; Nandana in 1013–1014; and Sirsāwa,
Baran (Bulandshahr), Mahāban, Muttra
(Mathura), Kanauj, Munj, Āsī (Asnī?), and
Sharwa (Sarawa?) in 1018–1019. In 1019–1020
and again in 1022–1023, Maḥmūd attacked the
Chandella (Candrātreya) ruler of Kalinjar, called
Nandā in the Muslim sources (Gaṇḍa, or his suc-
cessor Vidyādhara), and reduced him to
255
submission [13, 17, 22, 24]. Besides such “infi-
del” Indian rājas, Maḥmūd targeted the “hereti-
cal” Ismā‘īlī communities of Sind and Multan,
which were loyal to the rival Fāṭimid caliphate
based in Cairo [5, 14, 19, 22].
Mas‘ūd I built upon his father’s legacy in India,
capturing Sarsatī and Hānsī and sending his com-
mander-in-chief in India, Aḥmad b. Ināltegīn, to
sack Benares. The later Ghaznavid sultans appear
to have mounted raids (Arabic: ghazā < ghazw;
whence ghāzī , a frontier warrior for the faith) on
a more sporadic basis and without the permanent
annexation of territory. Several expeditions are
mentioned under Ibrāhīm’s reign, including the G
sacking of Āgra by prince Sayf al-Dawla Maḥmūd
in c. 1086–1090. Ibrāhīm’s son and successor
Mas‘ūd (III) even captured and ransomed the
rāja of Kanauj, while Mas‘ūd’s commander
Ṭughā[n]tegīn (Toghantegin) led a foray across
the Ganges [7, 24, 27]. Such ghāzī activity con-
tinued into the reign of the last Ghaznavid sultan,
Khusraw Malik, according to the testimony of
Fakhr-i Mudabbir and court poets [7, 26]. It is
likely that the mysterious tax called turuṣkadaṇḍa
(“Turkish punishment”), described in Gāhaḍavāla
inscriptions, arose in connection with these events
[7, 31]. Nevertheless, the Ghaznavids’ posses-
sions in India were largely confined to Punjab,
where Lahore emerged as the second and final
capital of the empire [27].
The sultans proclaimed their victories through
fatḥnāmas (victory dispatches) sent to Baghdad
and perhaps to other Muslim courts, and Maḥmūd
in particular evoked the image of a ghāzī carrying
jihād into infidel lands [1]. Despite their religious
justification, Maḥmūd’s military activities were
designed to acquire plunder, territory, and fame
for the Ghaznavid state; dethesaurized wealth was
used to adorn the capital of Ghazna, finance
a repressive military regime, and lubricate the
sultan’s war machine in Iran [2, 5, 13]. Nonethe-
less, instances of temple desecration and destruc-
tion of Hindu idols – such as at Thānesar
(1014–1015), Bārī (1019), Muttra, Kanauj, and
most famously the temple of Somnāth
(1025–1026) – acquired legendary status as exam-
ples of Muslim iconoclasm [29, 31].
256
Political and Cultural Legacy
The Ghaznavids were one of the most significant
dynasties in medieval Islamic history. For the first
time, an indigenous ruling dynasty (the Sāmānids)
was supplanted by its own generals in a process
that also represented the triumph of Turkish polit-
ical power in the Middle East. The Ghaznavid state
was highly centralized under the control of the
sultan, whose despotism relied on a military class
of ethnically mixed contingents that even included
Indian troops; Turkish ghulāms comprised both
the senior cadre of commanders and the palace
guard [5, 30]. The state bureaucracy was staffed
by Iranian bureaucrats from whose ranks came the
celebrated trio of early Ghaznavid historians: Abū
Naṣr ‘Utbī, Abū l-Fażl Bayhaqī, and Abū Sa‘īd
‘Abd al-Ḥayy Gardīzī [4, 9, 10, 20].
The sultans were also important patrons of
Arabic and especially Persianate culture, continu-
ing here the legacy of their Sāmānid predecessors
[6, 15]. The most important scholar to flourish
under Ghaznavid patronage was undoubtedly the
Khwārazmian polymath Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī,
whose celebrated Indological magnum opus,
Kitāb taḥqī q mā li’l-Hind, describes conditions
in the early eleventh century in immense detail.
The much shorter account of India by Gardīzī,
who personally knew and drew in part on al-
Bīrūnī, derives largely from an earlier work by
the Sāmānid vizier Abū ‘Abdallāh Jayhānī; this
account has in turn been traced back to a report
compiled for an ‘Abbāsid vizier, the Barmakid
Yaḥyā b. Khālid, in c. 800 [21]. The Ghaznavid
imperial court also cultivated New Persian litera-
ture by attracting such talents as Abū l-Qāsim
Firdawsī, composer of the Iranian epic
Shāhnāma, as well as celebrated poets like
‘Unṣurī Balkhī, Farrukhī Sīstānī, Manūchihrī
Dāmghānī, ‘Asjadī Marvazī (or Haravī),
Ghażā’irī Rāzī, Ḥakīm Sanā’ī, Mas‘ūd Sa‘d
Salmān, ‘Usmān Mukhtārī, Abū l-Faraj Rūnī,
and Sayyid Ḥasan Ghaznavī [6, 7, 27, 28]. Several
Ghaznavid rulers were enthusiastic builders.
Although most of their foundations have not sur-
vived the vicissitudes of time, a few extraordinary
architectural landmarks are extant in modern
Ghaznavids
Afghanistan; these include the palace (in ruins)
and minaret of Mas‘ūd III and the minaret of
Bahrām Shāh at Ghazna. The extensive remains
of the Ghaznavid palaces at Bust (Lashkar-i
Bāzār) further attest to the former greatness of
the dynasty [16, 23, 25].
The Ghaznavid Dynasty
1. Sebüktegīn, Abū Manṣūr, 977–997
2. Ismā‘īl b. Sebüktegīn, 997–998
3. Maḥmūd b. Sebüktegīn, Abū l-Qāsim,
998–1030
4. Muḥammad b. Maḥmūd, Abū Aḥmad 1030;
1040–1041
5. Mas‘ūd I b. Maḥmūd, Abū Sa‘īd, 1030–1040
6. Mawdūd b. Mas‘ūd I, Abū l-Fatḥ, 1041–1048
7. Mas‘ūd II b. Mawdūd, c. 1048–1049
8. ‘Alī b. Mas‘ūd I, Abū l-Ḥasan, c. 1048–1049
9. ‘Abd al-Rashīd b. Maḥmūd, Abū Manṣūr,
c. 1049–1052 [Usurpation of Ṭughrul
(Toghrıl), Abū Sa‘īd, c. 1051–1052]
10. Farrukhzād b. Mas‘ūd I, Abū Shujā‘,
1052–1059
11. Ibrāhīm b. Mas‘ūd I, Abū l-Muẓaffar,
1059–1099
12. Mas‘ūd III b. Ibrāhīm, Abū Sa‘d, 1099–1115
13. Shīrzād b. Mas‘ūd III, 1115–1116
14. Malik Arslān b. Mas‘ūd III, Abū l-Mulūk,
1116–1117
15. Bahrām Shāh b. Mas‘ūd III, Abū l-Muẓaffar,
c. 1117–1157
16. Khusraw Shāh b. Bahrām Shāh,
c. 1157–1160
17. Khusraw Malik b. Khusraw Shāh, Abū l-
Muẓaffar, 1160–1186
Cross-References
▶ ‘Alā’ al-Dīn Ḥusayn (Ghūrid)
▶ Bayhaqī, Abūl-Fażl
▶ Bīrūnī, al-
▶ Delhi Sultanate
▶ Fakhr-i Mudabbir
▶ Ghūrids
Ghaznavids
▶ Ismā‘īlīs
▶ Ithnā ‘Asharī Shi‘ism
▶ Jihād
▶ Jūzjānī, Minhāj al-Dīn
▶ Kāfir
▶ Lahore
▶ Maḥmūd Ghaznavī
▶ Mas‘ūd I
▶ Muḥammad b. Qāsim
▶ Muḥammad Ghūrī
▶ Multan (Islam and Muslims)
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